The Second Coming || Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, David Bowie

The Second Coming: Four

A light snow was falling, and I was wearing Jon's coat.

The sky was cloudy and grey, but somehow it was enjoyable. The air smelled cold and crisp, it carried the scent of an incoming holiday season. The traffic was slightly calmer, people everywhere were in a Christmas kind of mood. The kids weren't out of school for winter break quite yet, but the holidays seemed to be in full swing.

As I walked down the street with Lina, Nadine, and Nina, this was not what I was thinking of. I thought about the way Jon smelled the last time I saw him, like soap. I remembered how he held me, I remembered the sincerity in his eyes when he told me he'd come back. I remembered the dial tone I recieved every time I tried to call.

It was a day just like this day. The wind was bone-chillingly cold, but the promise of Christmas made it alright.

I was beaming that day. I had a wad of money in my pocket, and my friends and I were headed to the record store downtown. It was the place that all the kids loved to go- the music freaks, anyways.

"Aw, look at her! Like a meth addict in a crack house." Nina was grinning as she shoved my shoulder painfully. Lina (Nina's blonde counterpart) furrowed her eyebrows deeply.

"Wait... but isn't there crack in a crack house? Crack isn't meth."

Nina ignored her and slung her arm over my shoulder. "What're you gonna get this time? INXS? New York Dolls? Oh! I know, you should totally fill out a pre-order form for that new Megadeth album, I heard it's gonna be the shit."

"Hmm, that sounds like a good idea," I agreed with her; Nadine was rolling her eyes.

"Dreck, that's what it all is. Try a good Debussy album instead, it far surpasses that bullshit you guys listen to."

I wanted to inform Nadine of what a good time she had at the party two weeks previously, drunkenly dancing to Girls Girls Girls. Of course, she wouldn't have believed me anyway, she still denies even seeing me at the party.

I was slightly confused as we approached the record shop. It was the only place on the block with graffiti all over the front so I knew it always attracted a lot of attention, but it wasn't normal to see small crowds of people on the outside pressing their faces to the glass.

"What's going on here?" I muttered to Nina as we approached the front door. She just shrugged, exmaining faces of the women we passed. Some looked just about ready to drop dead, but when we walked into the shop nothing looked out of the ordinary.

"I'm going to the classical section," Nadine announced before she flounced off to the west side of the shop.

"Oh, Nina!" Lina squealed, pointing toward the hip-hop section. "Look! The New NWA EP!"

I laughed to myself as they rushed over, before I immediately took myself to the very back of the shop- the rock n' roll section. Most times I could only buy one album at a time, and so I would marvel at each one in a quandary over which was worth more. This time I had scraped enough up (playing in the streets) to be able to afford two albums and possibly a cassette, if I worked my money right.

Unfortunately, when I went back there a bunch of guys were blocking virtually the entire display. I thought about asking them kindly to move, but a dozen horrible scenarios played out in my head and prevented me from giving them a second thought. The pop section happened to be right next to rock n' roll, so I decided to look around there while I waited for them to leave.

I found myself listening to their conversations as they browsed through the selection, and laughing a little at the familiarity of it all.

"Ah, shit! This Crüe album is fuckin' insane, we gotta get this one."